A collection of thoughts
and photos of my life and
work in the northern
Great Plains of
North America
(and occasionally other
places in the world).

Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Slopes of Kilimanjaro

Amboseli....Serengeti..... Kilimanjaro..... Tsavo.

Places that occupy a back corner of my mind from a lifetime of an interest in wildlife.

"At first it was hardly more than a feeling in the ground, from out in the night somewhere. Then there was a bass cough, and crumping sobs gathered and went rolling about the dark, one by one, like barrels tumbling. It was the lion song, and I sat quiet to learn it, as you learn the trill of a tree toad, or how an alligator goes. And though there may have been little real song in the sound , it came in strong and lonely through the whisper of the mist; and to me, at the same time, it seemed to tell of an age being lost forever."Archie Carr - Ulendo

Now I am going to see the Serengeti myself.

I will be working in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area this fall. The Enduimet WMA is in the northwest of Mount Kilimanjaro just across the border from Amboseli National Park in Kenya. I have been reading as much as I can on the conservation issues associated with the wildlife management areas in Tanzania and it is amazing how much the issues, particularly the socio-political aspects of conservation, parallel much of what is currently going on where I live and work. More on that when I get back for sure.